Swedish court orders Sony to pay $46,000

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish district court has ordered Sony Mobile Communications to pay 300,000 Swedish kronor ($46,000) worth of royalties to Swedish musicians following a dispute over the classification of a mobile phone.

Lund's district court on Tuesday ruled that Sony's mobile phone model W715, which includes and MP3 player, should be considered as equipment aimed at copying copyright protected material.

In Sweden, a small royalty is put on the sale of all such equipment, including recordable tapes, CDs and memory sticks.

The organization Copyswede, which represents musicians and copyright holders in the Nordic country, had demanded that Sony should pay 2 million Swedish kronor in royalties given the phone's potential capacity to store music. The court lowered the amount, arguing that the phone's storage capacity isn't only used for copying music.